System requirements: - a program for playing sound files
- the LUCIDA SANS UNICODE font
PRESENTATION
(which you should read if you wish to understand this method well)
This is the first chapter (1) of a COMPLETE COURSE IN LATIN ON CD (or on-line), for learning and/or teaching Latin in a similar way that any modern language is taught in a Language Institute: with the help of a teacher or learning entirely by yourself. This course is based on HANS HENNING ØRBERG'S revolutionary Latin method (2). The author is a Danish linguist (in internet also ORBERG, OERBERG or ÖRBERG). His Method applied to Latin is monolingual Latin-Latin.
I have had excellent results using it during eight years with students in a Colegio Mayor (3) of the UNIVERSITY OF NAVARRA (Pamplona, Spain). The students had had only some occasional contact with Latin grammar.
The Method aims in the first place to understanding and translating classical authors, but after finishing about only the half of it (over a period of six semesters with three hours of classes a week), the students had even acquired an acceptable understanding of texts from the 4th century onwards.
Achieving the same level of knowledge in this relatively short period is not always possible. In our case it depended on the previous knowledge of Latin on the part of the students. Thanks to this knowledge, some few grammar lessons could be advanced and inserted among the lessons in order to progress with the most appropriate speed for the group.
1- LECTURES HAVE BEEN GIVEN IN LATIN: (Few exceptions were made to anticipate some grammatical constructions). Giving the lectures in Latin makes it possible to advance more quickly, especially if there is no time to finish the entire course.
2- USE OF UPDATED LATIN: Updated sources included the Lexicon Recentis Latinitatis (4).
The most significant results of using this method with lectures given in Latin were, as I would like to call it, the "Latin mental language-structures" (5) which could be verified as follows:
a) The naturalness of oral expression in Latin (minimizing the need to first make a mental translation from the native language to Latin), as it happens with acquired language habits in any modern Language Institute;
b) The ability to understand fairly complex Latin writings (e.g. texts from the 4th century and onwards which were the subject of translation exercises at the end of the Latin course), even though none of the students had ever worked on comparable Latin texts.
1. The possibility of self-study and self-evaluation, since this Latin method has the extraordinary feature to explain within and through the context the new terms and grammar of each lesson.
2. The acquisition of "automatic Latin mental language structures" since the method forces the students to think in Latin.
3. Previous knowledge of Latin helps but is not a requirement, since this method starts from scratch.
4. The learning process is intuitive and smoothly gradual.
5. It is flexible enough to permit advancing some lessons on grammar to quicken the process of learning, depending on the previous knowledge of the students, but you should not expect too much of these interruptions.
6. Previous knowledge of Latin will speed up the process of learning, but by no means should any lesson be omitted: this would jeopardise the acquisition of the mentioned "automatic Latin mental language structures".
7. There is no "grammatical Everest" to be hurdled.
8. The first aim of the method is to become familiar with classical Latin, but it also allows the incorporation of progressively postclassical (philosophical, medieval, scientific) or even updated Latin.
9. The teacher, based on updated Latin dictionaries of his choice, can add different explanations in accordance with the personal needs of the students.
10. The acquisition of the capability to use Latin in daily situations, which can be a new point of motivation.
11. The method turns out to be very pleasant.
12. A few meetings will probably be helpful in order to answer the questions that some students may still have after a lesson.
13. The CD/ON-LINE METHOD allows the students to LISTEN TO THE PRONUNCIATION of the lessons, which helps them learn howto stress and pronounce the Latin words and sentences properly. (back)
Depending on the level of previous knowledge, the study effort may take more or less time. Each lesson is divided in different parts which can be studied as units. Each unit may require thirty or forty minutes of study (average time). Nevertheless the study will never become boring.
This chapter of presentation has two SOUND FILES provided for this lesson.
• One contains the so-called "CLASSICAL PRONUNCIATION" (Pronuntiatio classica) corresponding more or less to the classical period of Rome. -This pronunciation, however, is an approximation of the Latin spoken in that period and admits some variations- (6).
• The other file contains the "ECCLESIASTICAL VATICAN PRONUNCIATION" (Pronuntiatio Ecclesiastica Romana) which is considered official in the Roman Catholic Church.
Some introductory lessons on the usefulness of this course at the beginning of each term will help understanding better the more than 3.000 years of western often unknown cultural history and heritage, and raise the level of interest of the students.
FINALLY I have to admit that I never before had seen students learning Latin as enthusiastically as they have been with Mr. ØRBERG's method. It would be probably not easy to find another method that could match it at this time. (See also the short observation of a French professor).
Pamplona/Madrid, 1-7-2011
Dr. Johannes Schoutsen
(1) Dr. PAUL WILLIAM MILLER of the LANGUAGE INSTITUTE of the University of Navarra (Pamplona, Spain) prepared this Web-Page. Whithout his computer knowledge this experiment never would have been possible. I am very thankful for his suggestions and infinite patience.
(2) Edition of 2009 titled LINGVA LATINA PER SE ILLVSTRATA © in 2 volumes: I. FAMILIA ROMANA (XXXV chapters., 328 pp.); II. ROMA AETERNA (XX chapters., 424 pp.) See for more publications our frontpage: praesentatio librorum auctoris.
About the author: en.wikipedia
For the USA, CANADA and UK: Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Co. P.O. Box 369 Newburyport, MA 01950 /amazon.com / / www.fetchbook / amazon.co.uk // For Japan: amazon.co.jp
(3) The Colegios Mayores are student residences officially integrated into the University life in Spain, to a certain extend in a similar way that Colleges form part of English Universities. The Spanish tradition dates back about 500 years ago.
(4) Italiano-Latino published by "Libraria Editora Vaticana" - Libreria Editrice Vaticana -, (Vatican City 1992; revised edition 2003), and its German version Deutsch-Latein published by Antiquariat GmbH in 1998 and by Klett Verlag GmbH, Stuttgart 2001, Germany. Since the authority of any other similar Latin dictionary rests exclusively on the without doubt always great authority of its writer, in the case that different words are possible for translating current concepts, preference should be given to the Lexicon Recentis... (E.g. "terrorisme" has been translated by "tromocratia" instead by "terrorismus").
As a matter of fact, in the absence of other higher authorities, the Holy See can be considered the most authoritative institution in this point for several reasons:
• Latin is an official language of the Vatican State and of the Holy See (Sancta Sedes).
• Latin has been updated by writers, Christian (as Tertullian already did in the 2nd century for philosophical and theological concepts) and others without interruption until our time, so that stictctly Latin can't be considered a dead language. Its situation is rather like Hebrew before it was reestablished as a spoken language.
• Besides this, the Documents of the Roman Catholic Church for more than one thousand million faithful are official (editio typica) only as soon as the text receives its approval in this language, exceptions apart. (A good example of this reality has been the elaboration and edition of the new Catechism of the Catholic Church, provisional edition in French in 1992; Latin -and official- version: editio typica from1997 . -Vid. Catechismus Catholicae Ecclesiae ). Therefore it is no exaggeration to suppose that the Holy See speaks -if one would compare it in the context of British English- with a similar or still higher authority as the Oxford English Dictionary.
(5) "Mental language-structures" refers to the growing ability in using acquired knowledge by repetition. Its neurological fundament relates to the formation of new synapsis engrams as described in specialized medical literature.
(6) The pronunciation used for the international news in Latin - NVNTII LATINI - of the Finish International Broadcasting Corporation (Yle Suomi) is warmly recommended even as Radio Bremen (Germany). • For the Ecclesiastical Roman Pronunciation you may listen to records or broadcastings of Gregorian chant by Radio Vaticana, section: Liturgical Broadcasts (Laudes / Vesperae / Completorium) where also can be read and listened to its Nuntii Latini (Format mp3).